US Jews more likely than Christians to say Trump favors Israel too much

U.S. Jews are more likely than Christians to say President Trump favors Israel too much, according to a Pew survey.

By World Israel News Staff

U.S. Jews are more likely than Christians to say President Donald Trump favors Israel too much, according to a recent Pew Research Center Survey.

The survey, conducted between April 1-15 among 10,523 U.S. adults, finds about four-in-10 (42%) say the president is favoring the Israelis. Forty-seven percent say he is treating the Israelis and Palestinians with the right balance. Six percent say he favors the Palestinians. Four percent said they don’t know.

“By comparison, Christians in the United States are more likely to say Trump is striking the right balance between the Israelis and Palestinians (59%) than to say Trump favors the Israelis too much (26%),” writes Gregory A. Smith, an associate director of research at the Pew Research Center.

The gap is still more dramatic among Evangelicals, of whom 72 percent say President Trump strikes the right balance between Israelis and Palestinians, and just 15 percent say Trump favors the Israelis too much.

“The difference between evangelicals and Jews on this question partly reflects partisan divisions,” said Pew’s Smith.

“Most evangelical Protestants describe themselves as Republican or say they lean toward the Republican Party, while most Jews identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party,” he said in a report on Pew’s website.

The survey also found that eight-in-1o, or 79 percent, of Evangelicals have a favorable view of the Israeli people. That number is seven-in-10 for mainline Protestants and about two-thirds for Catholics. “People in all three groups are far more likely to say they have a favorable view of the Israeli people than they are to say the same of the Palestinian people,” Mr. Smith writes.

President Trump has  taken a number of dramatic pro-Israel steps since entering office, including moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, cutting financial aid to the Palestinian Authority and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, whose facilities were used by terrorists, and most recently, recognizing Israeli control of the Golan Heights.

Given the U.S. president’s support for Israel, Pew’s findings may cause a sharp reaction among Israelis. Already, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son, Yair, outspoken on social media, posted on Tuesday a link to Pew report with a one-word comment: “Shameful!’